In Loving Memory
by Shikata ga nai
Summary: Kari's long dead, but Sora and Mimi claim they ran into her on the street (quite literally). Is this strange-yet-familar woman really Kari? What will TK's reaction be...especially since he's finally moved on?
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Digimon. If I did, I would be stinking rich and would likely have better things to do than write stories. As a matter of fact, the only things in this story I can lay claim to are the cat Nefertiri, the girlfriend Jennifer, and a can of pink paint. Feel free to use all three, but you are responsible for the litterbox. (Okay, that was bad. ^^;)

In Loving Memory

__

Mmrroooww...

Carrie sighed and opened her eyes. A furry white face blinked into view. With a kiss on the nose as a good morning, the cat jumped off her chest and sashayed out of the room importantly.

Carrie groaned and reached for her alarm clock. She had woken up half an hour before the alarm. After tossing and turning some more, she flopped on her back with a defeated sigh. It was no use. She was awake now.

A shower revived her completely and now she stood in the kitchen in her business suit. Another loud meow attracted her attention to the white cat circling her legs.

"Nefertiri! It's all your fault. You woke me up. Didn't you?" She picked up the cat with a smile as it purred happily. 

"You know what baby?" The cat fixed its yellow eyes on Carrie. "I think something exciting's going to happen today. I can feel it."

She was sitting on the cross-town bus to her office, enjoying the sunlight coming through the window, when she felt eyes on her. She looked around the bus from her seat: a man reading the Tokyo Daily Standard; an old woman clutching a large purse, fast asleep; two children in school uniforms--there. Her breath caught in her throat. Sitting directly across the aisle, staring fixedly at her, was a man with the bluest eyes she'd ever seen.

When he continued to stare she turned uncomfortably back to the window. She got off the bus hurriedly at the next stop, though it wasn't hers. She moved through the crowd almost at a run for five minutes before she collapsed on a bench, panting and shaking. 

Why was she so disturbed? Some creep had been staring at her, that was all. Probably just trying to get a reaction. She ran her fingers through her light chestnut hair, trying to control her breathing. Those eyes...they bore right through her. 

Finally Carrie got up and headed for the nearest coffee shop, walking in a daze. She wasn't even watching when she ran into another woman, dropping her briefcase and scattering papers on the sidewalk.

The woman apologized and began to pick up the mess, giving Carrie a chance to look at her. She was wearing jeans, cowboy boots and a fringed jacket. Her hair was dyed a pretty pink with sparkles in it. As the woman got up their eyes met and a strange expression came over her face. Carrie found herself getting nervous again. 

"Once again, I'm so sorry."

"That's okay, I wasn't really watching where I was going," Carrie stammered, unable to take her eyes off the stranger.

"MIMI!" Carrie glanced up to see another woman, the same age as the cowgirl, come running up to them. She had shoulder-length brown hair and brown eyes. "I'm glad I found you. I've just talked to Joe and--" She stopped midsentence when she noticed Carrie standing there and looked between her and the woman called Mimi with an intrigued expression.

"Who's your friend?" The woman asked Mimi in a somewhat tight voice.

Mimi smiled. "Sora, this is..."

"Carrie." Carrie prompted.

"And Carrie, this is my good friend Sora. Carrie and I just ran into each other. Literally." They all laughed.

As the three of them went in the shop for coffee, Carrie felt much more relaxed. As she talked to the two women over cappuccinos, she felt like she'd known them all her life.

"Oh, look at the time. I'm sorry Carrie, but we have to get going." Sora cast a meaningful look at Mimi, who looked about to protest. She said goodbye to the girl and asked for her phone number.

Once the two women were a few blocks away from the coffee shop, Sora sat down on a bench and pulled out her cell phone.

"What are you doing?" Mimi asked.

"I'm calling Tai." Sora responded as she flipped the phone open.

"Wait, are you sure that's a good idea? We should at least talk to him in person. In case he faints or something."

Sora studied Mimi for a moment. "You're right. That's a better idea. We'll go back, get everyone together, and then tell them. Then we can all deal with this." She put her phone away and stood up. "After all, it's not every day someone comes back from the dead."


	2. Chapter 2

Mimi and Sora lived in a large apartment with the other five Digidestined, and right now they sat in the living room with Joe, Izzy, Matt and Tai.

Sora cleared her throat. "We've called everybody here because Mimi and I have some very big news for everybody."

Matt piped up. "TK's not here yet."

Sora winced. "Well, um..."

"We thought we should wait to tell him." Mimi said calmly. "Besides, he's still at work."

Izzy snorted. "You say that like he's the only one who works around here."

Mimi rolled her eyes theatrically. "Well, _you_ work out of the apartment and Joe's on a break from med school." Izzy owned his own small computer programming company.

"And Matt and Mimi's band only plays at the club on weekends." Sora added. 

"And what are your and Tai's excuses?" Izzy teased.

Tai turned red and started playing with his wedding ring. "I'm between jobs," he muttered.

"Um, can we get on with the 'big news?'" Matt was playing nervously with a button on his shirt. "Mimi and I kinda have a rehearsal in an hour."

"Okay." Sora took a deep breath and held tightly onto Tai's hand. "We-we're pretty sure we found Kari."

The silence was deafening. Mimi looked around the room. Tai was white as a sheet, holding tightly onto Sora. The others were in various states of shock. Except Matt. She sidled closer to him, placing her hand on his knee. He turned his azure eyes on her and kissed her cheek.

"I already knew." He said in the silence. "I was sitting across from her on the bus this morning. When she saw me she freaked and ran off the bus. I got off after her but she was gone."

Tai tried a few times before he was able to speak. "How can you be so sure it was Kari? We thought she was dead. I mean, people don't just pop back to life and forget to tell their families, do they? It can't possibly be her."

Sora smiled grimly. "Maybe she had amnesia. She said her name was Carrie, and she didn't remember us. But I'm telling you, it really, really looked like Kari. She's the right age, she has the same hair, the same eyes. Her voice is a little deeper, but it _has_ been fifteen years. When she looked at me, I just got this feeling, you know? I believe it's her."

Izzy cleared his throat. "Personally, I think we should all meet this girl. Why don't we invite her to dinner? Then we can all get to know her."

"Good idea. I'll call her now." Sora pulled out her cell phone again.

"Wait!" Matt said suddenly. "What about TK? We can't spring this on him right away, not until we know for sure that this girl is really Kari. It would kill him if we're wrong."

Silence fell again as the Digidestined considered this. Then Mimi's eyes lit up. "He has a date on Friday night! I fixed him up with my friend Jennifer." She explained when everyone looked puzzled.

Sora picked up her phone. "Great, so we'll invite Carrie to dinner on Friday and afterwards we'll all go watch Matt and Mimi's band at the club."

Everyone was getting excited now that they had a plan.

Looking over at Joe, Izzy realized he hadn't said anything about this news. "Joe, you've been awfully quiet," he said. "How do you feel about all this?" 

Joe looked solemnly at Izzy. "I think we're making a mistake about this Carrie person. I saw Kari's body and I'm sure it's not her. What if this is all a coincidence? We could severely traumatize an innocent woman by trying to make our own wishes come true." His expression changed to morose by the time he finished.

"Take it easy, Joe," Mimi said cheerfully. "We're just going to meet her, not brainwash her!"


	3. Chapter 3

Although he was excited, Tai spent the next few days worrying about Friday. He was continually woken by his worst nightmare from the last fifteen years: the battle where his sister was killed.

__

The landscape looked like the surface of the moon. It was all bare rock and dirt, pockmarked with craters and scorch marks from energy blasts. The Digidestined were wearing down quickly but VenomMyotismon was as strong as ever.

The digimon had digivolved to Ultimate and were holding the beast at bay while the tired children strategized.

"We can't hold out much longer!" Tai puffed. 

The children looked up to see that their friends were fighting for their lives.

"Wing Blade!_"_ _Sora's digimon, Garudamon, had been trying to hit VenomMyotismon's eyes, but she wasn't having much success._

"Vulcan's Hammer!_"_

"Celestial Arrow!_"_

VenomMyotismon was brushing off the Digidestined's best attacks like dandruff.

"We need a good plan!" Joe cried.

"We haven't got_ a good plan!" Tai moaned._

"Chill out guys," Izzy said. "All we need..." he tapped at his computer, "is two Mega level digimon for the added power while we all attack at once. The combined force should stagger VenomMyotismon."

"And then?" Tai asked hopefully.

Izzy sighed. "And then we need the strength of at least two more Mega digimon to completely destroy him."

"Wait," Joe said slowly. "Are you saying we need four_ Mega digivolutions to defeat this thing?"_

"At least." Izzy replied.

"This is insane."

"I'm in,"_ Tai said cheerfully._

"Me too." Matt chimed in.

"Prodigious!" Izzy exclaimed as he played with his computer some more. "Okay, I have a program that should allow us to digivolve easily without expending too much energy, but I haven't tried it out yet."

"Is it quick?"

"I hope so."

All the digimon were called back to regroup. Matt and Tai held up their digivices. "Ready." Izzy hit the Enter key.

Within seconds, Metalgarurumon and Wargreymon stood in front of them. 

"Good job Izzy! All right everyone, on the signal, aim for his chest. Kari and Sora ready on the backup with Mega forms. You two aim for the head. Ready? ATTACK!" Tai yelled.

"Terra Force!_"_

"Ice Wolf Claw!_"_

Eight blasts of energy struck VenomMyotismon squarely in the chest. Phoenixmon and Magnadramon swooped in for the final assault but the evil digimon recovered and fired an attack at them.

Kari ran forward. "Magnadramon!"

VenomMyotismon turned at the voice and shot at Kari.

Everything happened in a blur. The Digidestined shouted at Kari to get out of the way. Magnadramon streaked towards Kari to protect her. The black beam of evil energy raced towards the human and digimon. TK's anguished wail as it hit the two with a blinding flash.

The next thing Tai remembered was waking up in the real world. (Sora told him later that Magnadramon had been destroyed. Phoenixmon and Metalgarurumon had finished off VenomMyotismon before they were mysteriously returned home.)

All of the Digidestined were scattered across an empty intersection in the middle of Odaiba in the darkness. Kari was sprawled on her back, unmoving. 

Joe crawled over to her and checked her pulse. "Oh my God," he whispered. "She's gone..."

"NO!" TK yelled. "You're lying!" He ran over to Kari as tears welled up in his eyes. He sat in the street, rocking back and forth, cradling Kari's head, her still form in his lap. "She can't be dead, she was alive just a minute ago..."

The wail of sirens jolted Tai out of his daze. "Police...we have to go...we have to leave her..."

And the Digidestined hauled themselves into the shadows as the first of the police cars showed up.

Tai woke up shaking and sweating, the image of the explosion and the evil digimon's laugh still burned into his brain. He turned over to wake up Sora for some badly needed comfort, but the sight of her sleeping peacefully beside him melted his heart.

Instead he got out of bed and went into the living room to watch TV until he fell asleep on the couch, where Sora found him in the morning.


	4. Chapter 4

Friday night came and Matt, Mimi, Tai, Sora, Joe, Izzy and Carrie were all having a good time at dinner. 

TK had been slightly put out about being left out of their plans (he didn't know Carrie existed yet), but he went for his ill-fated date anyway. TK didn't have much luck with women; he rarely got past the first date.

The Digidestined had all worn their crestsin the hopes that they would trigger a memory, but Carrie appeared not to have noticed them at all. Nevertheless, it was going well.

Carrie was comfortable with all of the new people, although she was surprised by Matt ("I saw you on the bus!"). By the end of the main course, she had been coaxed into giving them a brief history of her life.

"Well," she began, "I don't remember much of my childhood. When I was eight I woke up in the Rising Sun hospital in Tokyo. I couldn't even remember my own name. The doctors told me I was in a car accident and both of my parents were dead. Needless to say, I was shocked and kind of confused because I couldn't remember any of this. The police had found me a few feet from the car at the scene of the accident." 

She took a deep breath. "They couldn't find any relatives, so when I got better they let me pick a name for myself and I was adopted by two very nice people. I grew up and now I live with my cat and work at an office job here in Tokyo." She took a bite of her mashed potatoes, staring down at her plate.

The Digidestined cast discreet glances around at each other. All faces said the same thing.

After the conversation drifted aimlessly for awhile, Matt declared that he was going to get an after-dinner drink. Everyone but Carrie agreed ("I don't really drink,"), and Sora stayed with her while everyone else trooped off to the bar.

"So, what do you think of our group?" Sora asked once they were alone.

"It was a bit overwhelming at first," Carrie admitted, Abut now I feel like I've known you all forever. They're very nice."

Sora smiled and her crest glinted in the light of the restaurant. 

"I noticed you all have those cool necklaces." Carrie gestured to the crest. "What are they from?"

Sora's hand went to her crest. "We all got them while we were growing up in Odaiba. It was sort of a special club we all belonged to," she said, choosing her words carefully. "They're called crests, and they each stand for different personality traits. Mine's the Crest of Love," she said, displaying the heart-shaped pendant. "Tai wears Courage, Mimi's is Sincerity, Matt's is Friendship, Izzy wears Knowledge, and Joe's is Reliability." she smiled again softly.

"Were there any more members?"

"A couple."

Carrie was silent for a moment. "Matt is very cute, don't you think so?"

"Mimi wouldn't like to hear you say that!" Sora teased.

Carrie grinned. "I know, he's taken. I'm not that kind of person. But--I've never thought about it before--I could really see myself falling for someone like him." She giggled. "Maybe it's the blond hair!"

Sora went pale. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Oh look," she said, relieved. "Here they come with the drinks."


	5. Chapter 5

The turning of a key in the lock was followed by six tired twenty-somethings tumbling through the doorway. Mimi clicked on the light switch.

"Oh man," Joe groaned. "It's three AM..." 

Sora looked around the apartment. "Where's TK? He should have been home already."

"Hey hey hey!" Tai slipped his arm around her waist. "Maybe he got lucky!"

"My, aren't we sensitive?" She kissed him on the tip of his nose.

"Come with me and I'll show you what I'm talking about!" Tai took her by the hand.

"Can it wait, you guys?" Mimi stifled a yawn. "I know it's late, but we should have a quick meeting before the ladies' man comes home."

Everybody collapsed in the living room. Tai sighed. "First off, I just wanna say that Matt and Mimi, you guys did great tonight. Best night of my life."

Sora smiled. "Yeah, it was a blast. But we need to talk: what did you all think, now that we've met Carrie?"

Tai sobered up considerably. "She is...a very nice person."

"She's shy."

"She's cute."

"She's Kari." Matt leaned back on the couch. "I think we all know that. She has to be. There's just too many coincidences."

Tai smiled grimly. "You're right, Matt. There are a lot of them. She looks the same, she talks the same. Her story checks out. Kari--the battle happened--when she was eight. Hey, she even has a cat."

Mimi cleared her throat. "So we're all agreed then. We're sure it's Kari?"

Izzy looked thoughtful. "I think we require some contradicting arguments to clarify our position in this matter."

Everyone looked blank. Matt said, "Izzy. It's three in the morning. We're all very tired. Please speak English."

Izzy sighed. "Sorry. I meant, what does Joe think?"

Joe frowned at Izzy. When he saw everyone staring at him, he sighed. "I-I think there's a good chance it might be Kari."

They all cheered.

* * *

Carrie stood in her kitchen, prying at the lid of a paint can. After an eternity of muttering at it, the lid popped off to reveal pink paint. She had one day to paint her apartment and it was time to get moving.

Standing in the living room, she realized she still had to pull the furniture away from the walls and cover it. She panicked, having completely forgotten about that.

After ten minutes of pushing and pulling, the sofa and chair were in the middle of the floor. She draped them with sheets and turned to the rest of it. She went slightly pale at the sight of a giant oak china cabinet in the corner. With a groan, she decided she needed to somehow find some outside help. Then she smiled. Didn't she have six able-bodied new friends to help? She ran and picked up the phone, all her fingers crossed.

__

Click. "Hello?"

"Hello, Sora? It's Carrie."

"Oh, hey Carrie. What's up?"

After some explanations and begging on Carrie's part, Tai and Sora agreed to come help her out. With the extra hands and Tai's added strength, they got the whole apartment painted within the afternoon. 

When they were all collapsed in the kitchen, worn out (and painted pink in more than a few places), Carrie spoke up again. "I can't thank you two enough! That job flew by with your help." She glanced at her watch. "It's after six, would you like to stay for supper?" 

Tai grinned. "After all that work, I might eat you out of your house, but OK!" 

When they were settled in to eat their pasta dinner, Sora cleared her throat nervously. "Uh, Carrie? We're friends, right?"

Carrie gave her a puzzled look. "If we're not, then you two make great slaves."

"Well, it's just...we have some weird news for you and we don't want you to freak out or anything."

"Go on."

Sora looked at Tai before she continued. "We think we know who you were before you woke up in the hospital."

Carrie's eyes widened but she didn't say anything. 

"When we were kids, Tai had a sister who looked like you and acted like you. She was eight when she...left us. Her name was Kari."

"So you think I'm Tai's long lost sister?" Carrie put down her fork. "That _is_ a little weird...can you tell me why you would think that?"

Sora looked at Tai beseechingly. When he nodded at her, she began to tell the story of the Digidestined. She finished with the battle with VenomMyotismon, Tai adding details here and there. She didn't mention TK's existence, because she thought that the relationship TK and Kari had shouldn't be an incentive for a might-be stranger to adopt Kari's identity. 

When the two of them finished their story, a heavy silence fell upon the room as they waited for Carrie's reaction. At first she said nothing, staring at them solemnly, her thoughts unreadable though her face. 

Suddenly Carrie burst out laughing. She carried on giggling for a few moments until she was calm enough to speak again. "Th-that was brilliant," she gasped. "You guys really had me going for a while there." She wiped her eyes. "Who thought up that story? Very imaginative, but you need to work on the realism a little. I mean, talking animals that live on the computer network?" She chuckled again. 

"B-but..." Sora stammered, hurt and unbelieving. Tai pressed his hand on her arm. 

"Well, we're glad you enjoyed it, Carrie." He checked the time. "Sorry, but we have to get going now." He waved as he led Sora out the door. "We'll talk to you tomorrow!" 

They hailed a taxi and rode silently for a few blocks before either of them spoke. 

"I was so sure she'd come back to us." Sora squeaked. "I can't believe she thought it was all a joke!"

Tai hugged her. "Well, think about it. Would you be able to accept a story like that, right out of nowhere? I wasn't expecting anything from this. But I still believe that she's Kari, and I think we can bring her around." 

"Oh Tai, you are such an optimist it makes me sick sometimes!" Sora smiled as she squeezed him back.


	6. Chapter 6

Mimi was sitting alone in the kitchen poking at a bowl of cereal when TK shuffled into the room, his hair still dishevelled from sleep. 

"Hey, stranger," she greeted him. "Haven't seen much of you lately. How's it going?"

TK came over to the table with a large bowl of Cheerios. "It's going pretty good."

"How are things with Jennifer?"

TK beamed. "She's great. We always have stuff to talk about, she's very nice. Every time I'm with her, I get this warm feeling inside. I think I've found something with her." He blushed slightly. "Thank you for setting me up with her, Mimi. She's the best thing that's ever happened to me."

Mimi tried to smile, but inside she was screaming. _What about Kari? Doesn't she matter to you anymore? _Then another voice interrupted her internal rant. _It's been fifteen years, Mimi. It's time he moved on. He's a grown man, he thinks Kari is dead..._

She got up and left the room quickly before she said something she would regret. Worry was eating up her insides. What if he married Jennifer? Then what would happen if Kari came back? She fervently wished that she'd never run into Carrie on the street, had never set up TK with her friend. But it was too late now. The damage was done.

__

* * *

A few weeks went by. The Digidestined had tried subtly to get Carrie to remember their childhood, but hadn't had any success yet. Doubt was clouding the horizon as they were finally coming to terms with the possibility that the door to Kari had shut for good, but they kept trying to bring her around. 

"I found it!" Tai yelled triumphantly as he climbed out of a closet.

Everybody jumped. "Found what?" Izzy asked without looking up from his computer screen.

"This!" He produced a chain with a flower-shaped crest. "Kari's Crest of Light. I don't know how I let it disappear into the bottom of the closet like that, but I've found it now." He held it out in front of him and it twirled in a beam of sunshine. "If Carrie doesn't recognize this, then I officially give up!"

So that was it. They called Carrie over on the pretense of needing her opinion on wallpaper samples, and when she showed up, the group crowded around the cluster of couches in the living room. 

"Here," Tai said to her when she had settled down on the couch. "This is for you." He handed her the crest. 

"Hey," she said. "This is just like the ones you guys all wear!" She smiled as she looked at it.

"Yes, it's your own Crest." Sora said.

"Oh my God, thank you so much!" Carrie's eyes got shiny as she stared around at the group. "Which crest is this?" 

"We want you to guess." Tai said with a grin.

"Oh, um..." She examined it. "Well, it looks like a flower. Is it the crest of beauty?" She laughed. "I'm joking, really. Actually, it reminds me more of the sun..."

The tension in the room was cut by the sound of a key turning in a lock. Horrified looks took over the Digidestineds' faces as the front door slowly opened. Matt swore silently.

"Hey everybody, I got out of the office early and I decided to bring Jen over before we go to a movie..." TK stopped in the doorway when he saw everybody staring at him. His jaw dropped as he saw Carrie sitting there in the sunlight with a familiar crest around her neck.

Jennifer's voice echoed through the hall. "What's the matter, honey?"

Carrie got slowly up from the couch, walked halfway to the door and stopped, uncertain. The look on her face was reminiscent of a curious cat. Then her voice rang out in the still air. "TK?"

*****************************************************

Author's Note: And that is where I chose to leave it. This is the official end of the story (I like ambivalent endings). However, one of my good friends and valued critics read this story and told me I had to expand on it. So I did. If you would like to see what I thought would happen next, move on to the epilogue…


	7. Epilogue

DISCLAIMER: I do not own digimon.

A/N: This is dedicated to Lady Maggie and Gatomon1, because they made me write it. Sorry it took so long to get this up, but here it is. Enjoy!

~*~

TK looked between the two women. Kari was standing innocently in a beam of sunlight, staring at TK with that eerie recognition in her eyes. Jen stood behind him in the hallway, biting her lip and looking politely confused.

His eyes widened. "Shit." 

"Uh, Takeru, is there something that I need to know about here?" Jen was standing inside the apartment now, staring at Kari. Her expression changed to the wary curiosity of a lioness who knows her territory has just been intruded upon. "Who's this?" She asked him.

"This is Kari. She's…an old friend of mine." He gestured at Kari as he spoke.

Jen looked skeptical. "Uh huh." She examined Kari again. "What's that around her neck?"

TK didn't even have to look at it. "It's the Crest of Light," he mumbled.

"You gave her jewelry?! You must have, or you wouldn't know what it was!" Jen was freaking out now. "Yeah, I know what's going on. Here I thought we had something special, and the whole time you had _this_ little slut on the side!!!" She pointed an angry finger at Kari, who looked thoroughly confused now. 

That was it. TK had had enough. Nobody talked about Kari like that. "That's it." He said quietly. His voice had a dangerous knife-edge. "Get out. Just leave, now." He pulled a key off of his key ring. "Here's your spare key, now get out of my house."

He slammed the door behind her and stood there for a few moments just leaning his head against it. When he finally turned around his eyes were red and his hands were shaking slightly. 

Kari approached him warily. He looked at her but did nothing else. Slowly, slowly, she reached her hand out to touch his shoulder. She evidently decided it was safe because she stepped close to TK and wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace. 

He leaned his head on her shoulder and squeezed his eyes shut tightly. "Kari..."

******************************************************************************************

Author's Note: That's it, that's all. I tried to keep the ending of this chapter relatively the same as the end of the last chapter. Did you notice? ^^; Anyway, sorry about the gigantic wait on that one. I haven't been properly near the computer for a week. Every time I got near it somebody else needed it for this, that and saving the world. *Sigh* So forgive me, enjoy and PLEASE review. Jaa ne! 


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